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Our lucky Dear Timmy winner included in ThinkGeek's official made-from-wood-pulp Summer 2010 catalogue is Brad from North Sioux City, South Dakota. It's a question close to our own space-loving hearts, and we hope NASA doesn't mind Timmy revealing its innermost secrets.

Lunar Launches Liquidated?

Dear Timmy,

My mom mentioned to me that there will be no more manned Moon missions made.Is there something they are trying to hide up there?

Sincerely,
Brad

Dear Brad,

The question is not what are they trying to hide on the moon from us, but what is it we can see from the moon that we can't see down here? There are currently two leading theories...

The first theory is that if we were allowed to regularly go to the moon, we would be able to see the Earth and Solar System for what it really is: A model cast in brass, riding atop the four great elephants that rest on the turtle Great A'Tuin's back as he backstrokes through the ether. Many would dismiss this argument, but its very compelling to believe and would explain many of our world's greater mysteries. Obviously, by allowing continued, extended stays on the Moon, this secret would get out. Bad news for everyone.

The second train of thought is actually hundreds of years old: they're afraid you will see that the Earth is hollow. Jules Verne knew it - and anyone who writes about taking trips under the sea in submarines and to the Moon in rockets, knows their science.

Now, I'm sure your wondering, if it was possible to see the Earth was hollow from Lunar orbit, then why couldn't we see that with all of the satellites whizzing up there? The reason is that the internal Earth is only visible when the Earth lies at just the right spot between the Moon and the Sun during its annual transit across the sky. The rest of the year, the Earth is either too close or too far from the Moon for the optical effect to occur. But when the distance is just right, for just a few minutes, the light of the Sun reaches its optical focus at the center of the Earth, revealing to anyone on the Moon the fact that this wobbly ball of earth of ours is in fact wobbly for a reason--it isn't completely filled!

In case you're wondering about the science behind this "observed wobbliness," you should know that this is the core technique used by modern astronomers to identify planets in other solar systems. Christian Johann Doppler first described this effect in 1842. Herr Doppler noted that the observed wavelength and frequency of a wave change if the source of the wave moves toward or away from the observer.

Remember: monkeys were in space before humans, so we know what we're talking about.